After Fisher v. University of Texas: towards racial justice or whiteness rising?

Abstract

This essay examines the significance of the fortuitous Fisher v. University of Texas Supreme Court decision within a broader historical framework of similar affirmative action legal disputes. The author locates Fisher among a historical trajectory of manoeuvres intended to destabilise modest Civil Rights Era advances toward racial justice. Leonardo’s ‘educational criticism’ is considered as a possible conceptual analysis to take up the continuing problem of race, education and the law in our colour-blind era. Despite the Fisher decision affirming the continued permissibility of limited racial considerations in college admissions, a careful examination of how race is understood from a legal perspective reveals a disconcerting revelation. That is, racial justice advocates in education should temper our enthusiasm for Fisher against evidence that the Supreme Court’s understanding of racism has unquestionably gone backwards. Because of this, Fisher is at best a problematic step toward meaningful integration, and at worst an instantiation of whiteness rising.

Keywords:

• Affirmative action
• whiteness
• education
• colour-blindness

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank the anonymous reviewer(s) for their excellent suggestions and comments to improve the manuscript. It is an honour to publish in this space and my deepest appreciation to Whiteness and Education Editor Dr. Nicola Rollock.

Notes

1. The exceptions are United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburgh, Inc. v. Carey (1977), Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) and Grutter v. Bollinger (2003). It should be noted that although the Supreme Court recognised the permissibility of racial considerations in these exceptions, the use of race was only permissible in the narrowest form possible. The examples where the Court prohibited the use of race in public policy and/or refused to remedy institutional racial discrimination are too numerous to list.

2. The POFR has two federal lawsuits against Harvard & the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill challenging its race-positive admissions programme. In the Harvard suit, Asian American Students are presented as the aggrieved ‘victims’ of race-positive admissions.

3. This is precisely the legal strategy adopted by the POFR in the anti-affirmative action lawsuit against the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill.

4. This paper is a product of my dissertation work under Professor Zeus Leonardo - without whom so much would not be possible. I dedicate this publication to him as a modest example of my sincerest gratitude.